Mortality rates were increased for patients with rheumatoid arthritis relative to the general population across all causes of death in a recent Arthritis Care & Research analysis.

The study included 87,114 rheumatoid arthritis patients in Ontario and 348,456 age/sex/area-matched general population comparators from 2000 to 2013. During follow-up, 14% of rheumatoid arthritis patients and 9% of individuals in the general population died.

A new International Journal of Nursing Practice study demonstrates that during childbirth, women may benefit from warm showers, perineal exercises with a ball, or the combination of both strategies. The study found positive effects of these strategies in terms of lessening pain, anxiety, and stress.

In tests of skin on 80 adults, the levels of breakdown products of filaggrin--a protein that helps maintain the skin's barrier function--changed between winter and summer on the cheeks and hands. Changes were also seen regarding the texture of corneocytes, cells in the outermost part of the skin's epidermis.

A new Journal of Internal Medicine study describes an innovative program to eliminate hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a public health threat in Iceland.

In the TraP Hep C program, which started in January 2016, an emphasis is placed on finding early cases and treating patients at high risk for transmitting HCV: people who inject drugs. All patients with national health insurance are offered treatment regardless of fibrosis stage and comorbid conditions.

In 2015, the estimated medical costs attributable to both fatal and nonfatal falls in older US adults was approximately $50 billion. The findings come from a recent analysis published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

For nonfatal falls in adults aged 65 and older, Medicare paid approximately $28.9 billion, Medicaid $8.7 billion and private and other payers $12.0 billion. Overall medical spending for fatal falls was estimated to be $754 million.

DALLAS, March 7, 2018 - When heart failure patients receive a heart pumping device known as a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), their caregivers seem to suffer, too - at least initially, according to research in Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

The evidence on which India's top selling drug combinations for diabetes have been approved for sale is shoddy, with the requisite trial data falling well short of the international standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO), finds the first study of its kind published in the online journal BMJ Global Health.

So poor are the data that, not only could the health of patients with type 2 diabetes be potentially put at risk, but they also call into question the role of the multinational corporations behind the manufacture of these drug combos, say the researchers.

A naturally occurring compound found in cannabis may help to curb the frequency of epileptic seizures, suggests a review of the available evidence, published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

But the evidence to date is confined to the treatment of children and teens whose epilepsy does not respond to conventional drugs, and rare and serious forms of the condition, caution the researchers.

Differences in the active treatment of lung cancer across England may be cutting short the lives of hundreds of patients with the disease every year, concludes research published online in the journal Thorax.

Disease and patient factors don't seem to be driving these variations, say the researchers, who calculate that if treatment rates rose to optimal levels, 800 patients could "have a clinically relevant extension of their lives each year."

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